I have lived with chronic pain for years. I was in pain management for a few years but found that the pain was desirable to the addiction. Don't get me wrong, I think opiates have their place, but sparingly.
The new generation of pain meds like Gabapentin and Tramadol give me bad side effects which my doctor related to people far beyond my age. One of them makes me cry/emotional uncontrollably and the other gives me an out of body experience that is very strange.